


Currency in Ferelden and Orlais

by a_felidae



Series: Fact and Fancy - Dragon Age Meta [2]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Dragon Age Lore, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25124935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_felidae/pseuds/a_felidae
Summary: The video games give coins as simply gold, silver and copper.There is additional information regarding currency in "World of Thedas" Volume 2 that gives the names for coins in different countries of Thedas.I figured that I needed more than one coin each for my fanfic, and this happened.
Series: Fact and Fancy - Dragon Age Meta [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1819999
Kudos: 1





	Currency in Ferelden and Orlais

After reading „The Pillars of the Earth“ by Ken Follett, I realized that medieval coins were a lot more complicated than simply Gold, Silver and Copper.

For example: a gold coin named Bezanth was worth ten pounds of silver. Silver pennies could be counted for small sums or weighed for large ones.

The simplyfied approach works well for the video game, but I was interested in the details for writing fanfiction.

The World of Thedas Volume 2 has a section about currency in Thedas that gives names for coins in different countries.

But knowing that Gold, Silver and Bronze are called Sovereigns, Silvers and Bits in Ferelden, or Royals, Crowns and Pennies in Orlais was not enough for me.

Especially since a silver coin in Britain could be one out of 14 different coins, varying in value.

So I decided to make up my own, more detailed system for my dragon age fanfiction.

And, after I put in the work, I figured I might share it, for other detail orientated writers out there. I can’t be the only one, so maybe someone find it useful.

Real world coins I used as a basis:

  * Pound: also called sovereign; mainly gold mixed with copper; weight: ca. 8 g; worth a pound (or ca. 490 g) of silver



Officially abbreviated: l (latin: libra)

  * Crown: Mainly silver, weight ca. 1 ounce (or 28,3 g)



Abbreviated by me: c

4 c = 1 l

  * Florin: Mainly silver, weight ca. 11 g; the name florin was used in various countries, apparantly came from the floral design on the italian florin.



Abbreviated by me: f

10 f = 1 l

  * Shilling: also called twelvepence; mainly silver; weight ca. 5-6 g



Officially abbreviated: s (latin: solidi);

20 s = 1 l

  * Penny: originally minted in silver, later in bronze; weight in bronze: 1/3 of an ounce (or 9-10 g)



Officially abbreviated: d (latin: denarius);

12 d = 1 s; 240 d = 1 l

  * Farthing: bronze; weight ca. 3 g



Abbreviated by me: fa

4 f = 1 d

NOTE:

Some terms overlap. For instance:

Sovereign: A Fereldan sovereign or a british sovereign/pound

Crown: An Orlesian crown or a british crown

Penny: An Orlesian penny or a british penny

Halfpenny: An Orlesian halfpenny or a british halfpenny

To avoid unneccesary confusion, each of those coins in Thedas is worth as much as its british counterpart and is cast of the same metal (Gold, silver, and bronze). I do not know if the british threepenny or thruppence was ever simply called „thrupp“, but the Fereldan thrupp is a threepieces coin, and they are not to be confused, for pennies and pieces are NOT worth the same, and therefore neither are their multiples.

I also put in some info in cursive, regarding how much coins from thedas would have been worth in british currency.

There is some information floating around the internet concerning medieval prices, and this way you can use those sites to get an idea what my currency might have bought in reality and adapt it for Thedas. See notes at the end for some sites with prices for various stuff.

Since it is clearly stated in Dragon Age that City Elves eats rats (Origins: Shianni mentions rabbit stew made out of city rabbits) and maybe even cats (the novel "The Calling" mentions that Fiona fed a stray that later disappeared, likely into someone's cookpot), I was especially interested in the following list:

One pound of horseflesh 1s 8d

Quarter of a dog (fattened by eating corpses) 5s 6d

A dogs head 2s 6d; A cat 4s 6d

A rat (fed on human flesh) 1s 0d

A mouse 0s 6d

I figure that during the Orlesian occupation, stuff like that might have actually been for sale in Ferelden, and integrated the idea in my fanfics.

I also tried to make sense of some in-game prices.

For example, Nessa can tell you that she needs 3 silver coins so she and her family can move to Highever. Since I am inventing more coins, I had to figure out which ones she might mean. I will explain my calculations after I’ve explained the coins.

Only Ferelden and Orlais were relevant for my fanfiction so far, so I concentrated on those two nations for developing the currency. Canon coin names are bolded.

I tried to work the game mechanics of 100 copper coins = 1 silver coin and 100 silver coins = 1 gold coin in where they could fit, but mostly oriented myself on what seemed to make sense. I came up with this:

**GOLD** :

FERELDEN:

  * **Sovereign** :



1 Sovereign is worth 1 pound of silver.

ORLAIS:

  * **Royal** :



1 Royal is worth 2,5 pounds of silver

A Sovereign and a Royal have similiar names, but are not the same coin nor do they have the same worth!

Orlesian Royals are bigger and heavier, and are worth 2,5 Fereldan Sovereigns.

I figure it fits with Orlais‘ culture of abundance compared to the more down-to-earth society in Ferelden.

There might be bigger coins than that, but I go with one gold coin each for now.

**SILVER** : can refer to various coins.

FERELDEN:

  * **Silver** : the largest silver coin in Ferelden.



There are 10 Silvers to 1 Sovereign.

_1 Silver = 1 f = 2 s_

  * Noble: the second largest silver coin in Ferelden. It is named for the laurel wreath (laurus nobilis) stamped on the back. (inspiration: Florin)



There are 10 Nobles to 1 Silver or 100 Nobles to 1 Sovereign.

_1 Noble = 2,4 d_

  * Quad: a coin worth multiple Pieces; from the root _quad_ (latin: "four, fourth")



There are 4 Pieces to 1 Quad

_1 Quad = 0,4 fa_

  * Thrupp: a coin worth multiple Pieces; from the english thruppence; would have been thruppieces, but that sounded weird, so I shortened it.



There are 3 Pieces to 1 Thrupp

_1 Thrupp = 0,3 fa_

  * Piece: the smallest silver Coin in Ferelden. First minted in silver, later in bronze. I named it to go along with the copper Bit: „Bits and Pieces“.



There are 10 Pieces to 1 Noble or 100 Pieces to 1 Silver or 1000 Pieces to 1 Sovereign.

_1 Piece = 0,1 fa_

ORLAIS:

  * Lion: largest silver coin in Orlais since the Valmont family came into power. Named for the lion head stamped on the back.



There are 2 Lions to 1 Royal.

_1 Lion = 1,25 l = 25 s_

  * Drake: formerly largest coin in Orlais, minted during the drakon dynasty. Named for the drake (a dragon, not a male duck) stamped on the back. Still in use, but the Valmonts had to demonstrate their superiority by bringing their own family crest into circulation in form of a coin of higher value.



There are 4 Drakes to 1 Royal.

_1 Drake = 12,5 s = 250 d_

  * **Crown** : largest Orlesian silver coin to still be in circulation in Ferelden after the occupation



There are 10 Crowns to 1 Royal or 4 Crowns to 1 Sovereign.

_1 Crown = 1C = 5 s = 60 d_

  * Half-crown: second largest Orlesian silver coin to still be in circulation in Ferelden after the occupation.



There are 20 Crowns to 1 Royal or 8 Crowns to 1 Sovereign.

_1 Half-crown = 2,5 s = 30 d_

  * Chevalier: Maybe the coin was not needed in Ferelden like the larger denominations of crown and half-crown, that filled a void. But I think the blatantly Orlesian name was part of why it was not welcome in Ferelden after 78 years of occupation and is no longer in circulation there.



There are 40 Chevaliers to 1 Royal.

_1 Chevalier = 1,25 s = 15 d_

  * Esquire:



There are 50 Esquires to 1 Royal.

_1 Esquire = 1 s = 12 d_

  * Centime:



There are 100 Centime to 1 Royal.

_1 Centime = 0,5 s = 6 P_

**COPPER** : can refer to various coins

FERELDEN:

  * Piece: formerly a silver coin, now cast in bronze.



There are 10 Pieces to 1 Noble or 100 Pieces to 1 Silver

_1 Piece = 0,1 fa_

  * Dubbit: a coin worth severeal Bits (informal from „double“)



There are 2 Bits to 1 Dubbit

  * **Bit** : small bronze coin



There are 10 Bits to 1 Piece or 100 Bits to 1 Noble.

ORLAIS:

  * **Penny** :



There are 6 Pennies to 1 Centime.

_1 Penny = 1 d_

  * Halfpenny:



There are 12 Halfpennies to 1 Centime.

_1 Halfpenny = 0,5 d = 2 fa_

  * Quart:



There are 24 Quarts to 1 Centime.

_1 Quart = 1 fa_

**The three silver pieces Nessa mentions she would need to get herself and her parents to highever:**

They’d likely be joining a merchant caravan.

I decided to use „guide for a night: 1 d“ as the price for a Travel group joining a merchant caravan.

Add to that 1 d/day (estimated cost of feeding a groom) per head for food, and you get 4 d/day total for Nessa and her parents.

Then I used this wonderful resource for travel times in Thedas:

<https://leliaanaa.tumblr.com/post/139600060280/highever-to-denerim-requested-by>

I estimated a Caravan would be a bit slower than simply travelling on foot, so I made it 14 days for the distance between Highever and Denerim.

4 d/day * 14 days = 54 d.

Then there are travel permits to be paid.

I figured 1 s/head = 12 d/head, so 3 * 12 d = 36 d.

Sum total for Nessa’s family: 54 + 36 d = 90 d = 3 Orlesian half crowns, or, as the game mechanics say, 3 silver coins.

**Author's Note:**

> You can probably tell that I am a stickler for detail.  
> I am using these ideas when writing my Dragon Age Fanfiction. Feel free to do the same, a link to this meta would be appreciated if you do.
> 
> some sources for medieval prices:  
> http://medieval.ucdavis.edu/120D/Money.html  
> https://regia.org/research/misc/costs.htm  
> http://messybeast.com/eat-cats.htm


End file.
